It’s estimated that 1 million birds and thousands of turtles and other sea animals die each year after ingesting discarded plastic bags.

More than 10 percent of washed-up debris polluting the U.S. coastline is made up of plastic bags.

It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the estimated 100 billion plastic bags Americans use each year.

The petroleum used to produce 14 plastic bags can drive a car one mile.

These reasons are precisely why I started to use reusable bags several years ago. In fact, I now feel morally guilty when using plastic bags. I consider our treatment of Earth a moral issue, and I know plastic bags wreak environmental havoc.